Social Party of National Unity

The Social Party of National Unity, nicknamed the Party of the U, is a liberal political party in Colombia that was formed in 2005 as a splintergroup of the Colombian Liberal Party. The party was formed by supporters of the conservative-liberal president Alvaro Uribe, who supported neoliberal economic policies and law and order during the war against the drug cartels and the FARC insurgents. Most of the party's members were Liberal Party defectors; supporters of Uribe within the Radical Change party refused to switch affiliations. By 2009, half of the Radical Change congressmen had switched sides to the Party of the U, however, making it the largest political party in the country. In 2010, Uribe backed his pupil Juan Manuel Santos' presidential candidacy, only to betrayed when Santos abandoned Uribe's political views in favor of social liberalism and progressivism. Santos also began a peace process with the FARC rebels, and the party supported the welfare state, the implementation of a market-based economy, supported globalization, supported decentralization and greater autonomy for the regions, and also supported Tony Blair's Third Way politics. Under Santos, the Party of the U formed a coalition government with the Liberals and Radical Change, governing Colombia in a coalition of the center-left.